It actually has in excess of $200 dlc... Like 1 dlc pack per train carriage skin... If ME3 has hundreds of alternate appeance packs it would come close to comparible.

DA2 was a bit of a scare, but they didn't DLC it to death, that game's DLC was a step up from DA Origins. I still think Shadow Broker is Bioware's best DLC to date, and Kasumi was excellent quality as well. Both from ME2.

I expect the DLC for ME3 will focus on attracting replays rather than extra missions. My cynic says your favourite characters from ME1 or ME2 as full fledged teammates and possibly 'love interest'. An extra $9 per charactrer to experience your preferred finale ending... Thats a blank check from every biowhore on the social site.... $$$$$$$$$$$$

Which honestly wouldn't be that hard to implement. The first two games all ready had neutral dialog options, so turning that into cutscenes is trivial.

If you really want to be an RPG purist, the Mass Effect series was pretty dumbed down even since ME1, so I don't really see what the fuss is about.

I read that you need Origin to be able to play ME3. For me, that's a show-stopper. Origin's way of diregarding privacy is for me a reason not to use it. So unless ME3 will be playable without Origin, I won't play it.

If you search the net you'll find a list of what origin scans compared to Steam..it scans less overall though it does scan appdata rather thoroughly for some unknown reason... steam does the same to a lesser degree plus many more registry keys than origin does.

Ah, I recall I read about that game somewhere. Seems that trains are an expensive hobby, whether virtual or models.

As for DA2, I'm afraid the lack of DLCs is caused by the game's apparent underperformance. The first (or third if we count those "pre-order" thingies) was obviously planned and most likely along with the core game. The second was Felicia Day's vessel so there had to be a contract with her and worming out of it would be bad for reputation and consequently business. But after Day's DLC, which was when -- summer, no? -- radio silence. That's 'cause this cashcow turned to be barren.

Oh, and there were two or three packs consisting of just items of Overpowered Overpoweredness.

They didn't DLC it to death because the game sold well below their expectations (even though it sold fine, they had some extremely high hopes) and got panned by users initially; they spent the first 3-6 months scrambling to clean that shit up instead of doing DLC. I'm not aware that there's any reliable source for this but some have claimed their DLC for DA2 did not sell well and they projected future DLCs would not really be worth making, financially.
This, it's insanity to think any of the clients aren't doing the exact same thing. You're actually punishing EA, insanely, for doing the right thing by being up front about it. No wonder businesses behave poorly, we punch them in the gut whenever they do the right thing, even accidentally.

That train simulator game isn't really a good example, honestly. Simulator games are a whole different market, and they follow different rules for DLC. The game itself is designed to appeal to people who already collect model trains, and the actual train DLCs are incredibly detailed. For someone who already is heavily invested in the hobby, a particular DLC may entirely be worth the money to them. The difference, however, is that they're only going to buy a few of them (usually), of the trains they actually want to use. Nobody in their right mind is going to buy thousands of dollars worth of trains, and the game doesn't encourage that either.

Compare this to the mainstream games market, where DLC is considered (often) to be mandatory because it either contains features that were cut out of the main game intentionally, or has item packs to improve your characters' usefulness because the devs didn't release any mod tools of any kind, or it continues the story expansion-style after a big cliffhanger. You won't be getting the "full ME experience" if you don't download any DLC, which is at stark odds compared to Railworks 3.

I think you are mixing up "casual player" with "new player", ie. someone who doesn't play much (or doesn't want challenge) to someone who does, but is still new to the series.

I agree with the orc that that particular design decisions sound good, nothing wrong with it. At least in theory it sounds a good solution to the old "should I have played all the previous games in the series before starting this one?"-problem.

Well, if you're accepting unexpected kicks in the balls from all comers, then yes, it's insane to punish the guy who warns you first.

But you're assuming this is a kick in the balls. This is simple, lawyer weasel words to cover their ass. They don't give a fuck what you have on your system beyond checking if you're cheating or hacking their games (just like Blizzard's The Warden or Valve's VAC) and they care that they can install their games and give you a good gaming and social experience. They're not kicking you in the balls, it's not even a doctor who's sticking his finger somewhere unpleasant to keep you healthy, it's just some company offering you a service.

Now if you don't want any clients, I can see that, I really can. But people who are fine with Steam and/or Impulse (and pretty much any modern MMO or Blizzard stuff) and have an issue with Origin due to "privacy", yeah, I'm going to have to giggle a little and point out that you're not being rational.

No it's unfair to punish a company for being upfront about what they are gonna do when your fine with another company doing worse because you like their client.

Wheres the kick in the balls? There is nothing in the Origin agreement that hasn't been used by other companies for years (actiblizz/valve) but because it's EA suddenly it's antiuser and Evil (with a capital E even). Compare to Actiblizz's anti cheat system that scans your memory and HDD for cheats/bots or VACS which does the same but when Origin puts it in the EULA this might happen they get insulted...

I have really big problem trying to understand this kind of logic... Since someone else did that in the past (and still doing it), you have no right to complain that another one joins the crowd??
It's pathetic how easily people give up their rights just to have a bit of *fun*... not even safety as the famous quote goes. I wonder how the "deserve neither" part applies here.

More 99.999999999% of those bitching happily use Steam, play SC2 and WoW and are in love with Diablo 3...

Or really, how many times he does this for whatever AAA game approaches in his latest pathetic bid for attention. You know, when he's not bumping his own long dead threads in hopes of getting attention.

It's just sad.

Oh, I agree with that. It's just that I don't think this invalidates complains about the new kid on the block using the same tactics.

But, yeah. It's sad what people can learn to accept as normal instead of sticking to their principles.